Vukomanovsky

Posted Saturday, April 22, 2023

1y

INTJ

Aquarius

Authoritarian capitalism

In almost every discussion in which capitalism is being criticized, one of the "argumentative weapons" of pro-capitalists has been the authoritarian character of socialist regimes. Underlying those sentiments is somewhat naive belief that capitalist societies are the craddle of democracy, participation, freedom of speech and civil society. However, sociological literature in the last 20 years has shown that not only is capitalism antithetical to democracy - its fragile legitimacy depends on authoritarian practices through which rulling elites secure support and stifle any oppositional organization to the rule of capital. Especially after 2008 crisis when capitalism started to lose legitimacy worldwide, popular dissent has been mercilessly crushed with police forces. So any attempt to defend capitalism on the grounds of its imagined difference to totalitarian regimes (which in reality were not nearly as totalitarian as western propaganda deems them to be) is doomed to fail and shows a deep, serious and profound ignorance of recent global political trends. Basically, capitalism turned into a demon of its own creation (or maybe it was like that from its inception?). With that in mind, it should be a sort of an encouragement to all of us who wish to see its final downfall.